There is no doubt that voice-over rates cause more havoc in our small VO community than anything else. When I first started in voice-over, I stepped right in the middle of it with people telling don't charge too much and others telling me to charge more. 

I certainly had no idea what to expect for pricing. I heard things like don't undervalue yourself, and make sure you are not cutting the industry. 

Whenever we try to put a price on someone, with the caveat of, "How much am I worth"? It strikes a real cord, on a personal level.

You can't value someone, that is impossible. The conversation always goes to this. 

But to me, this is the mistake that most of us are making. We keep looking at pricing as a function of what WE are worth and not a representation of what our BUSINESSES are worth.

If you haven't had a chance yet, listen to our latest episode of A VO's Journey Podcast here with an interview with Philip Chryssikos.

This needs to be talked about more, and it...

Finding good scripts is hard, especially ones that give us the “real-life” practice we need to grow as voice actors.

However, do not lose hope, I have put together three tips and tricks you can use to get good scripts to practice voice acting like a rock star (If rock stars practiced voice acting, that is).

Listen to the latest episode of A VO's Journey Podcast!

A quick note: Whenever you practice, make the most of it and spend a little extra time creating a process that you will follow from beginning to end.

Think of a golfer. Every time they step up to the ball, they have their ritual to bring them to that perfect moment of relaxation, remembrance, and creation. The same goes for us. Start to create a process where you get a script (copy), and you read, research, find your voice, deliver, analyze, modify, edit, master, format, and send off.

This is my method, but you can create your own. Practicing voice acting this way is called "targeted practice."

** Three tips and...

Setting up a phone patch for direction in your vocal booth for voice-over is easier than ever. There are five different ways I recommend setting this up without spending any money.

• What is phone-patch - A phone-patch allows two-way communication with the client.
• Paid method - An electric box that allows you to connect your mixer or digital audio interface to standard phone lines. 

** The critical thing to remember is that you do not have to pay for this. 

Free Method #1: Use your phone

• A phone is a very viable way, and if you put your phone on speaker or have Bluetooth earbuds, it works great.
• Upside: Everyone has a phone, and it is easy to call a number.
• Downside: The long-distance might cost money.

Free Method #2: Zoom

• Zoom is an online platform and app that lets you connect with anyone on the internet for free. Zoom has lots of other features that come with the paid versions, but it is open and usable for phone-patches.
• Upside - free.
• Downside - Only get 40...

Editing breaths in my voice overs used to plague me all the time. I literally would spend hours taking out breaths because I thought they sounded horrible and made the voice over seem amateurish. 

But I quickly realized that it wasn't the breaths I needed to be paying attention to, but the type of voice over I was doing.

Let me explain ... Was I narrating an audiobook or doing a car commercial? 

Both are voice overs but have a defined style of narration. There are always exceptions to the rule, but one (audiobook) should have breaths and one (car commercial) should not. 

As I grew as a practitioner of audio, I learned how to differentiate between the two. 

So ... there are times, especially during long form narration, elearning, conversational reads in longer form, etc. that should have breaths. It is natural to breath while talking and will actually sound quite odd if excluded. 

But, shorter spots, quick reads, commercials, etc. should...

Hello and welcome to episode number 93 of A VO's journey. My name is Anthony Pica, and this podcast is all about helping the new and upcoming voiceover artist grow their business and sidestep all the landmines that I jump on.

Tonight, I am going to be talking about a question that keeps popping up and I see it, especially with a lot of new voiceover artists, but that's not necessarily true. It's voiceover artists in general, and I think it's indicative of the changes in our industry. But the question is, why am I not making any money or why am I not making enough money when I see other people making tons of money? All right, so that's what we're going to be talking about tonight. Let's do it.

The question on the table is, why am I not making any money?

And you know, we could probably dive into a million things because there are, or there could be a million different reasons, but I think that question is actually probably the wrong question to ask. I'm gonna pose a different idea...

I am excited to talk to you about the people sleeping right now. And you might be like, Anthony, what the heck are you talking about ... everyone sleeps?

I'm talking about all the people who are not working hard enough to get what they want. There are people making excuses. There are people failing to simply start. 

"Courage is crossing the starting line" Amby Burfoot

All of those people choosing to "not start", choosing to not take chances, choosing to sleep when there is plenty time to do more, are going to lose. 

And that is a huge opportunity for you and me. 

You see, when I started out in voice over years ago, I didn't have the fancy equipment I have right now. I didn't have a studio or Whisper Room or super expensive mics. All I had was a crazy desire to work and prove myself. 

There is not a day that goes by I don't thank my lucky stars that I worked so hard in the beginning. 

I remember people asking me about my successes...

I am so thrilled what is coming up in A VO's JOURNEY. As you might have seen, there have been some major changes to the community.

I made an announcement that I have been waiting to make for 3 years ...

I AM GOING FULL TIME AS A VOICE OVER ACTOR!!!

It is so incredible to think of the journey that has taken me to this point and the journey we have been on together.

Because of the monumental decision, it hit me that I should really stop and think about what was the main factor that got me to this point ... what was the one thing that I would tell someone if they asked?

HOW DID YOU DO IT? HOW DID YOU GO FULL TIME?

The only answer I could honestly say is ... ACTING! 100%

Acting has been the cornerstone of what I have put all my eggs into. It wasn't the gear when I started out, in fact, all the gear I have now was purchased in the last 6 months based on my voice acting success.

It wasn't the marketing or fancy copy, or this and that.

Plain and simple, it was my skill in acting that led...

It's every voice actors dream ... get consistent voice over work. 

If you are like me, that is the single most voice over question on my mind (after mastering the technical stuff). It's painful not knowing where the next business will come from.

And even more, it sucks when you feel hopeless to not be able to control any of it. 

Look, it's not your fault. The industry is split right now, technology and the internet have changed the landscape. The industry is having severe growing pains because of it. 

So, for us, it is downright frustrating

What can we do? 

It is no secret that 2 things make you money in voice over ...

1. Narrating
2. Marketing

Everything else for the voice actor is a business expense. 

In order to make sure that we are constantly doing those things that will get us business, we need to find places that we can audition (Marketing) as much as possible so we can get the voice over work (Narrating). 

There are many places online to do this but...

Having coached many voice actors getting started on Fiverr, and even veterans, the greatest issue they have is with the setup of their gig.

In this post, I talk about 3 Pro Tips for setting up your Fiverr Gig right.

Pro Fiverr Tip #1: Title

Setting up your title correctly is imperative. Think of your title as what someone would type in the search box.

If you try to shove too many words (keywords) into your title, it will sound unnatural and won't cast you in a professional light.

Your title should include a possible searched phrase like ... "I Will Record An American Female Voice Over".  

Straight to the point and a possible customer might type in "American Female Voice Over".

Pro Fiverr Tip #2: Description

The next part of your Fiverr gig setup is your description.

Using your title, you want to answer the following questions in your description box:

1. Who
2. What
3. When
4. Where
5. How

These questions will give you a direction to go. If you answer...

How To Set Up Your Recording Booth For Voice Over

Check out the podcast here - A VO's JOURNEY PODCAST Ep. 2

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Welcome to A VO's JOURNEY.

My name is Anthony Pica and this is episode two. I am so excited to be back. I want to start off just thanking everybody for all of the amazing words and all of the praise and just I don't pouring of uh, love and, and I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. It means the world to me. Um, I've have to be honest with you guys. I literally have been thinking about doing this podcast all day while I was at work and everything.

So I'm, like I said yesterday, I'm a teacher and I had a good day at work, but I just literally been thinking about this all day, so I'm so excited to finally be here tonight doing the podcast and um, today we're going to dive right in to setting up a booth and how I set up my booth.

...